While your original construction project plan may have been reasonable based on the expected resources and client demands, you often have to change the priorities as the project progresses. You can use different methods to decide which tasks are the most important, but the key is to choose a structured approach and stick with it.

Selecting Features According to Cost

When a construction project has a fixed budget and financial constraints are tight, you may have to prioritize features according to criteria such as costs. Examine the alternative courses of action and attach expected costs to each one. Choose the option that falls within budget but still delivers the most value. Prioritize those tasks that are critical for your chosen course of action and carry them out, while keeping a close eye on the budget.

Prioritizing Customer Needs

Project requirements sometimes are more important than costs, especially when carrying out construction projects for your company's own needs or for major customers. If your company or your customer plans to move into a new facility as of a certain date, the costs for delays may be higher than the extra costs for finishing on time. Identify the critical functions of the project and prioritize the tasks you must carry out to put them in place. For example, your new construction may not need landscaping immediately, but it must have ventilation and lighting. Identifying and finishing these critical tasks lets you meet essential requirements.

Best Outcome With Available Resources

Even when costs are not a factor, you may have limited skilled manpower available or a limited supply of specialized construction materials. When your aim is to complete the project as quickly as possible, you prioritize those tasks for which you have adequate manpower and supplies. With your project progressing as rapidly as possible, you can address shortages, hire more people and find the materials you need. As manpower and material becomes available, you can prioritize new tasks to optimize progress toward project completion.

Evaluation With Multicriteria Matrices

Prioritizing tasks for complex projects often requires consideration of many factors in a structured approach. Create a matrix of task criteria and weighting to establish priorities. For example, task criteria might include necessity, cost and value to the customer with weights of 9, 6 and 4 respectively. To create the matrix, list the tasks down the left side of a table and the criteria with their weights across the top. Fill in a value for each task under each of the criteria. For example, plumbing has a high necessity but may not be costly or valuable. Enter values of 8, 3 and 5 under the three criteria. Multiply the values by the criteria weights to get (8 x 9) + (3 x 6) + (5 x 4) for a priority ranking number of 110. Repeat for other tasks, and give the highest priority to the task having the highest number.

About the Author

Bert Markgraf is a freelance writer with a strong science and engineering background. He started writing technical papers while working as an engineer in the 1980s. More recently, after starting his own business in IT, he helped organize an online community for which he wrote and edited articles as managing editor, business and economics. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University.